Senators Dahm and Bullard file election integrity bills

State Sen. Nathan Dahm, R-Broken Arrow, filed a series of election integrity bills on Wednesday to further strengthen and secure the state’s election systems and encourage the United States Congress to do the same.

Senate Concurrent Resolution 1 would work to help strengthen election integrity across the country and bring the focus back to the constitutional provisions regarding elections. The resolution calls on the legislatures of each state that did not report results on Election Day to use their power to audit and recount their election results. It also calls on the state legislatures to follow the constitutional provision allowing them to select electors. Finally, the resolution calls on Congress to use their constitutional powers to pass national voter ID laws and require paper ballots.

“The 2020 election has been complete chaos due to differing election rules, voter identification laws and ballot types across state lines,” Dahm said. “Now is the time Congress should be focusing on tightening election standards so every citizen can be reassured that only legal ballots are being counted.”

Senate Bill 33 would refocus the Electoral College in Oklahoma by requiring the legislature to select future electors unless Congress passes election integrity bills, including national voter ID laws.

Senate Bill 30 would prohibit any members of the Electoral College in the state from casting a ballot for any candidate for President or Vice President if either candidate does not meet the qualifications of a natural born citizen as required by the Constitution.

Senate Bill 32, authored by Sen. David Bullard, R-Durant, and co-authored by Dahm, would prohibit the implementation of any national popular vote system to be used for the Electoral College to cast their votes for the State of Oklahoma.

“Without the electoral college, Oklahoma has no voice in presidential elections,” Bullard said. “Currently, our electors must do what the people of Oklahoma say on election night. In this recent election, every county voted red. If this is changed to follow the national popular, we would have to certify electors for the candidate which did not get a single county. This law protects Oklahoma and Oklahomans from losing their voice.”

Finally, Senate Bill 34 would require the Secretary of the State Election Board to complete an audit of random election results to verify the paper ballots cast in the audited election match the electronic election results tabulated and tallied by the electronic election machines. This would apply to school board elections in February, municipal elections in April, primary elections in June, run-off elections in August and the general election in November.

“Our state already has one of the safest election systems in the country, but it’s important that we are diligent in protecting this system from any type of fraud or illegitimacy,” Dahm said.